Changes

Aristotle goes on to consider whether the tragic [[character]] [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pathos suffers (pathos)], and whether the tragic character [[commits]] the [[error]] with [[knowledge]] of what he is doing. He [[illustrates]] this with the question of a tragic character who is about to kill someone in his [[family]].

Aristotle goes on to consider whether the tragic [[character]] [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pathos suffers (pathos)], and whether the tragic character [[commits]] the [[error]] with [[knowledge]] of what he is doing. He [[illustrates]] this with the question of a tragic character who is about to kill someone in his [[family]].

<blockquote>The worst situation [artistically] is when the personage is with full [[knowledge]] on the point of doing the deed, and leaves it undone. It is odious and also (through the [[absence]] of suffering) untragic; hence it is that no one is made to act thus except in some few instances, e.g., Haemon and Creon in [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antigone_(Sophocles) Antigone]. Next after this comes the actual perpetration of the deed meditated. A better situation than that, however, is for the deed to be done in [[ignorance]], and the [[relationship]] [[discovered]] afterwards, since there is nothing odious in it, and the discovery will serve to astound us. But the best of all is the last; what we have in [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cresphontes Cresphontes], for example, where [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Merope_(wife_of_Cresphontes) Merope], on the point of [[slaying]] her son, recognizes him in time; in [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iphigenia Iphigenia], where sister and brother are in a like position; and in [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Helle_(mythology) Helle], where the son recognizes his [[mother]], when on the point of giving her up to her [[enemy]].(''[http://www.authorama.com/the-poetics-15.html Poetics book 14]'')</blockquote>[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plot_%28narrative%29]

<blockquote>The worst situation [artistically] is when the personage is with full [[knowledge]] on the point of doing the deed, and leaves it undone. It is odious and also (through the [[absence]] of suffering) untragic; hence it is that no one is made to act thus except in some few instances, e.g., Haemon and Creon in [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antigone_(Sophocles) Antigone]. Next after this comes the actual perpetration of the deed meditated. A better situation than that, however, is for the deed to be done in [[ignorance]], and the [[relationship]] [[discovered]] afterwards, since there is nothing odious in it, and the discovery will serve to astound us. But the best of all is the last; what we have in [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cresphontes Cresphontes], for example, where [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Merope_(wife_of_Cresphontes) Merope], on the point of [[slaying]] her son, recognizes him in time; in [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iphigenia Iphigenia], where sister and brother are in a like position; and in [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Helle_(mythology) Helle], where the son recognizes his [[mother]], when on the point of giving her up to her [[enemy]].(''[http://www.authorama.com/the-poetics-15.html Poetics book 14]'') [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plot_%28narrative%29 Source]</blockquote>

[[Category: Languages and Literature]]

[[Category: Languages and Literature]]